While many devices for manipulating threaded connectors have been heretofore known and/or utilized, a problem persists in their application and use when the connector to be manipulated is located in a cramped, distant or awkward to reach space, or is out of the line of sight. This has been particularly true where the threaded connector being manipulated is a line fitting (various types of which are utilized to join the ends of conduits, cables, and the like to each other or to another component in a mechanical and/or electrical system), application and use of such heretofore known devices frequently involving at least partial disassembly of associated structure or components to gain access to the line fitting and/or frequently involving some risk of damage to the fitting.
Perhaps the most common of such heretofore known devices are simple box wrenches or fitting wrenches. However, use of such standard wrenches, involving movement of the handle of the wrench through a significant arc, is not well suited to applications in cramped locations, or where a plurality of line fittings are extremely closely positioned relative to one another (at least where one does not wish to remove all fittings in a series, or row, of fittings leading to the targeted fitting). Additionally, use of these well known types of wrenches necessarily involve a "hands-on" operation, and, where a second fitting on the line associated with the fitting to be manipulated must be stabilized (for example, to avoid twisting of the line), frequently require use of two wrenches each of which must be held by the user.
Various tools have been suggested to reach fasteners located in cramped areas and/or for application with a power driver (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,477,318, 3,620,105, 2,578,686, 4,374,479, 4,928,559, 5,050,463 and 2,630,731), with such devices, however, likewise not providing for minimal manual manipulation of the tool during operation and/or not optimizing ease of utility, mechanical durability and thus reliability, and compactness of structure. Further improvements in such tools could thus still be utilized.